Community Spotlight
Karia Youngblood says Mount Holyoke College’s $175 million geothermal project is a bold move for the institution.
At its core, Mount Holyoke College’s $175 million geothermal energy initiative is an infrastructure project.
But, by design (in most cases, anyway), it has become much more than that.
Indeed, the massive undertaking, soon to enter its third phase, has become a living laboratory for many students, engaging them in learning opportunities involving everything from geology (during test-well drilling) to sustainable landscaping to humanities.
Meanwhile, the project has provided a captivating glimpse into the college’s past, with excavation work uncovering part of the foundation of the college’s original structure, the Seminary Building, which dates back to 1837, a find that provides some poignant symmetry, said Karia Youngblood, associate vice president of Facilities Management at Mount Holyoke.
“I worked with our archivist, and we overlaid the footprint of the Seminary Building and determined that foundation was actually the corner of the original boiler room of that building, which also explains why we found some fire bricks in that area,” she explained. “It felt like a really sweet, full-circle moment.”
Such symmetry is one intriguing aspect of this closely watched project, which is just one of many storylines unfolding in South Hadley.
“With our 19 units historically at 100% occupancy, with minimal opportunity to reside here due to lack of turnover, we believe the best way to sustain long-term success is to open the door to more housing.”
Others, said Town Administrator Lisa Wong, include everything from progress toward building a new elementary school to work toward development of a strategic plan for the town’s municipal golf course, to planned infrastructure work — and economic-development initiatives — in the community’s historic Falls section, which includes Town Hall.
“We’re hoping to raise some money and do some projects in that area, which is along the river,” she explained. “There are some businesses there, but we’re looking to attract more.”
As for established businesses that call South Hadley home, many can be found in the Village Commons, a setting unlike anything else in Western Mass. — a collection of buildings that has won awards for its design and is known for constant change, but also, in some ways, remarkable stability.
The Village Commons has historically had a high occupancy rate for its retail and office space, and there’s a lengthy waiting list for its residential units.
Indeed, many of the commercial tenants have had this mailing address for decades, said Jeff Labrecque, chief operating officer of Center Redevelopment Corp., which manages the Commons for its owner, Mount Holyoke College, noting that the same is true for those occupying the 19 coveted residential units as well.
“We have one woman who has lived here for 36 years,” said Labrecque, noting that there is a waiting list for the units, one that people stay on for several years, on average, before there is a vacancy.
This lengthy waiting list helps explain why the Village Commons is actively looking to expand and add additional residential units, Labrecque told BusinessWest, adding that South Hadley, like most area cities and towns, has a critical need for housing, especially of the affordable variety.
“I’m an alum of the college, and the day the board approved this project, I felt so much pride in my institution that they had the courage to take such a bold step to preserve the environment, to preserve the legacy of Mount Holyoke.”
“We’re continuing to focus on residential expansion opportunities,” he said. “With our 19 units historically at 100% occupancy, with minimal opportunity to reside here due to lack of turnover, we believe the best way to sustain long-term success is to open the door to more housing.”
Meanwhile, one of the long-time commercial tenants in the Village Commons, the Bean Restaurant Group, founded by the Yee family, has continually expanded its presence within the complex. Three of the group’s 13 restaurants — Johnny’s Bar & Grill, IYA Sushi and Noodle Kitchen, and Johnny’s Tap Room, a banquet and events facility — are located within the Commons.
Overall, the group continues to grow in size, with the most recent addition being the Crush Wine Bar in West Hartford, Conn. but also in prestige, recently garnering the 2024 Restaurant of the Year Award from the Retailers Assoc. of Mass. (RAM), recognizing the company’s longstanding dedication to hospitality excellence, culinary creativity, and community engagement.
“It’s a feather in the cap, not for the Yee family, but really for our teams in every restaurant, because they’re the ones that build the relationships,” said Edison Yee, son of Johnny Yee, who laid the cornerstone for what would become a chain with the opening of the famed Hu Ke Lau in Chicopee. “They’re the ones table-touching every day, and they continue to bring that culture that my father instilled in all of us to our restaurants every day.”
Things Are Heating Up
Numbers certainly help tell the story of Mount Holyoke’s geothermal system. And there are quite a few of them.
When completed, there will be 26 miles of geothermal piping to be installed under the campus. The project also entails the drilling of 230 bores, each of them 600 feet deep, that will heat and cool 43 buildings covering 1.6 million square feet of real estate.
The most important numbers, though, are 2037 and 100% carbon neutrality. The former is a date, the college’s 200th birthday, and the latter is a goal to be reached by that date, a goal that in many ways inspired the geothermal project, said Youngblood, adding that this goal coincided with another one — to replace a 100-year-old, highly inefficient steam-distribution system.
Members of the second and third generations of the extended Yee family now managing the Bean Restaurant Group: from left, Matt Yee, Nathan Yee, Sonny Wae, Bonnie Wae, Emma Yee, Nick Yee, and Edison Yee.
Tracing the genesis and progression of the project, Youngblood, an alum who has been working in her current position for three years, said the college made a climate commitment in 2016, and in 2018 a sustainability task force was formed to look at how the college could reduce its carbon emissions.
That group’s work soon focused on the school’s fossil-fuel-powered heating plant and five large steam boilers, which produced 80% of those emissions. And it led to an energy master plan that looked at a handful of different technologies and was guided by several criteria, including cost, greenhouse-gas reduction, and technology that was both adaptable and able to offer engagement opportunities for on-campus researchers and students.
These and other guidelines were met by geothermal heat-exchange technology, she went on, adding that Mount Holyoke took inspiration — and some lessons — from a similar project at Carleton College in Minnesota, and commenced work in 2022.
“This is a bold step for the college,” Youngblood said as she put the many aspects of this initiative into perspective. “I’m an alum of the college, and the day the board approved this project, I felt so much pride in my institution that they had the courage to take such a bold step to preserve the environment, to preserve the legacy of Mount Holyoke. We’re a small liberal-arts college in Western Massachusetts, and many of our peers with larger endowments have yet to take such a step.”
As Wong noted, the geothermal project is one of many developing stories in South Hadley. Others include early-stage work to replace Mosher Elementary School; recent improvements to Buttery Brook Park, including wildly popular pickleball courts; the launching of an affordable housing trust to address that pressing issue; creation of a Human Services department; gaining designation from the state as a green community; and planned infrastructure work on Main Street.
Meanwhile, the town is also launching a strategic plan for its municipal golf course. Conceived in the late ’90s, when golf was enjoying a Tiger Woods-inspired boom, the course, called the Ledges, struggled for many years, but has fared better recently as golf has enjoyed another surge, this one fueled in part by the pandemic.
“The course is operating in the black, but it’s not covering all the debt right now,” said Wong, noting that the debt incurred to build the course and clubhouse will be paid off in four years, and the town wants a plan in place for maximizing that asset. A major focus will be on open space for the public, such as accessible walking trails.
It Takes a Village
While Labrecque takes the title COO of Center Redevelopment Corp., he likes to refer himself as an ‘innkeeper.’
In fact, at least one tenant calls him that, he said, adding that the hospitality-toned title is a better reflection of what he does day in and day out — and also what the Village Commons was designed to be and has certainly become.
“When you’re managing more than 70 tenants, and most of them are mom-and-pops, you really have to take on the innkeeper mentality, almost as if you’re running a bed and breakfast,” he explained. “And it’s always hands-on, very different from a commercial mall environment.”
As noted earlier, the Commons is noted for both its stability — some tenants go back to the very beginning in 1987, and many have called the complex home for 30 years or more — but also for the change that comes to any facility that is home to retail and office tenants.
That stability is marked by 100% occupancy on the retail and hospitality side of the equation, and 92% on the office side, which is strong compared to many office facilities in the post-pandemic, remote-work era, but still down from the Commons’ history of full occupancy, Labrecque noted.
“Hybrid work schedules continue to impact the office market, therefore creating an abundance of nationwide vacancies, leading to a heated and competitive leasing environment,” he said, adding that, while, these and other headwinds continue to present challenges to the Commons, the facility continues to more than hold its own.
Recent additions include Kiao Wan Thai restaurant, which opened its doors in October, and Eliza Moser Fine Art. Moser is an internationally trained oil painter, art instructor, and gallerist, and her facility hosts a broad range of weekly classes, paint nights, and one-day workshops that are routinely sold out.
Meanwhile, established tenants cover many sectors and include Odyssey Bookshop, Darby O’Brien Advertising, HUB International, Ochoa Day Spa, and Tower Theaters, which, like most cinema operations, is still in recovery mode from the pandemic, but making strides and continuing to be a destination that brings people to the Commons and its many restaurants.
“When you’re managing more than 70 tenants, and most of them are mom-and-pops, you really have to take on the innkeeper mentality, almost as if you’re running a bed and breakfast.”
Looking forward, the Commons is looking to advance what would be its first real expansion in more than 30 years, said Labrecque, adding that this expansion will come on the residential side, and with the twin motivations of meeting the town’s glaring need for more housing, while also providing more revenue with which to meet the growing costs of maintaining a complex now approaching its 40th birthday.
Additional residential units would constitute phase 3 of the Commons project, and it has been talked about for at least 20 years, he noted, adding that efforts have been slowed by the Great Recession, the pandemic, and other forces, but he expects some movement on this front within the next year.
Next on the Menu
Meanwhile, the Bean Group works to balance its ongoing efforts to expand with the day-to-day work of managing and operating 13 restaurants — and, during September, three more operations at the Big E.
It’s a complicated balancing act, said Nate Yee, a member of the third generation of the family now managing the group.
“We put a lot on our managers; we have a great amount of trust in them,” he told BusinessWest. “It comes with a lot of communication and checkpoints — that’s really how we do it. What sets us apart is that family touch where we’re in the units; we try our best to get to every restaurant at least once every week. It doesn’t always happen, and we rely on our managers.”
While the group is spread out across Western Mass. and now into the Hartford area, roughly half its restaurants are in South Hadley. In addition to those at the Commons, there are also the Halfway House Lounge, Johnny’s Roadside (a diner focusing on breakfast and lunch), and the Boathouse, located on the Connecticut River.
The 13 restaurants in the group run the gamut, from sushi to cheeseburgers and milkshakes at the two White Hut locations, and this diversity certainly makes it interesting, said Nick Yee, another of Johnny’s sons, noting that, beyond the wide variety of restaurants, the group is also coping with changes in eating habits, including a tendency among the younger generations to eat earlier and get home earlier.
“In South Hadley, our busiest time starts at 5, and it goes until 8,” he noted, adding that only a few years ago, peak time was closer to 7. “In South Hadley, we used to be open until midnight; now, we’ve cut that down to 9:30, 10.”
As for opportunities for expansion, there are many of them, said Nick, noting that “every restaurant is for sale, really.”
Nate agreed, adding that the group looks at many factors when it explores opportunities — from the lease conditions to parking; from the talent pool to the condition of the building in question — but, ultimately, it comes down to leadership and whether it would make a good fit with the group’s culture.
Maintaining that culture is job one, they agreed, adding that doing so contributes to awards like the one from RAM, but mostly leads to continued growth and success for a group that started nearly 60 years ago and is still thriving, especially in this town that’s progressing right along with it.
